1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for displaying an image stored in a recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, digital cameras that can electronically process information of images taken and store the information of images as image files in a recording medium such as a memory card are becoming widely used. Moreover, most of such digital cameras are configured to display images on a built-in display apparatus (for example, a liquid crystal display panel) or an external display apparatus (for example, a television set) connected to a video output thereof.
A user finds a desired image file to be viewed by shifting recorded images forward or backward by one frame per operation and checking each image. Some digital cameras have a jump function that can display an image N (N is an integer equal to or greater than 2) frames ahead or behind, instead of one frame, per operation. Using such a jump function, if the user recognizes that a desired image file does not exist near the image currently displayed, the desired image file can be found and viewed with a lesser times of operation.
In recent years, on the other hand, a trend is accelerating toward a higher capacity of the recording medium. As this trend continues, the number of frames of images (number of image files) recorded on one recording medium becomes larger. With such a large number of image files that can be recorded, the user must repeat an operation of shifting the frame forward or backward to find and view a desired image file, thus being forced into troublesome operations.
A digital camera having the above-described jump function is discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-153832. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-153832 discusses an image reproduction method in which the reproduction operation jumps to the first image or an initial screen when the user operates an up button and jumps to the last image or the initial screen when the user operates a down button.
Also, some types of digital cameras allow the user to photograph by specifying a folder in which image files are recorded depending on purposes. In such cameras, when reproducing images for each purpose, the user must reproduce images while recognizing folders. In conventional digital cameras, a display screen must be switched from a reproduction screen on which images are displayed for reproduction to a folder selection screen, and after a folder is selected, the display screen must be brought back to the reproduction screen.
However, there is a problem that conventional digital cameras equipped with the jump function have a jump frame number N that is too large or small with respect to a total number of frames of recorded images. Also, since a jump destination image or a previous image may be in another folder, it is not easy to know which folder image will be reproduced next. Thus, the conventional digital cameras equipped with the jump function are inconvenient for users to find an image while recognizing a desired folder.
Also, in the case of jumping only to the first or last image using the jump function like, for example, the one in the digital camera discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-153832, when the number of frames of recorded images has increased, operations will become complicated and troublesome in the end because frames must be more frequently shifted for viewing.
Digital cameras that allow the user to select a folder by switching the display screen to the folder selection screen force the user to select the folder without recognizing all images in the folder. In such a case, because the user can check whether a folder is the desired folder only after displaying some images in the selected folder, operations will become complicated and troublesome.